It worked because you can “hear” the voices in your head from the original, Darth’s deep menacing baritone, Luke’s horrifed whine. If this scene had always been silent, it would have lost most of its impact.

Eh, while the modifying the footage too look like scratched up old silent footage was well done, it used too many title cards. The good silent movies used title cards only sparingly, using pantomime and gesture to convey the emotions and a surprising amount of story information. Star Wars is hammy enough to pull that off without dropping every second lines of dialogue everyone already knows.

Yeah, I was wondering that. I don’t watch silent films – apologies to all cinephiles for my barbarism, they’re completely alien to my mindset – but even I thought that it was too wordy. The music was excellent though.

I was thinking the same about the title cards. By halfway through it was more like reading the novelization of the film than anything.

I did enjoy the opening moments, though; they really captured the feel of silent film cinematography. Also, the ‘aaaaaaaaaaa’ card when Luke’s hand was caught off made me very glad I’d put my diet coke down before watching, or my sinuses would be sorry now.

I was thinking about what title cards would be necessary to convey the scene. I came up with the following. Everything else could go. It still seems like a bit too much, but I can’t think of where else you could cut something away without losing something important.

“You are beaten, it is useless to resist.”

“Join me and I will complete your training.”

“With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict…And bring order to the galaxy!”

“I’ll never join you!”

“Obi-Wan never told you about your father, did he?”

“He told me enough. He told me you killed him!”

“No, Luke. I am your father.”

“Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.”

Also, it would’ve been nice if they had different title cards for Luke and Vader, with the Imperial symbol at the bottom for Vader and a Rebel symbol at the bottom for Luke.